The Application of GIS in the Interpretation of Radiometric and Electromagnetic Surveys to Mapping Geological and Environmental Features by Mark G
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The Application of GIS in the Interpretation of Radiometric and Electromagnetic Surveys to Mapping Geological and Environmental Features by Mark G. Stevenson, Performance and Initiatives Group, Bucks County Council, UK, Michael J. McCullagh, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK, and Rob Cuss, British Geological Survey, UK Abstract This study looks at the application of GIS clustering approaches to airborne radiometric and electromagnetic point sampled data in an attempt to predict known geology in the UK at a small scale of part of the Derbyshire Dome area, and at a large scale of part of the Trent Valley. Spatially autocorrelated deviations in the automatic classification from the mapped geology were investigated further to determine likely causes for the misclassification. In the small scale trial the spatial resolution proved to be the critical limiting feature to accuracy and deviations were often related to analytical artefacts. In the large scale test spatial resolution once again was a problem, but the deviations provided some useful pointers to the possible development of an environmental monitoring system. Introduction The aim of this study is to demonstrate the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in the context of geological and environmental mapping from aerial survey. Specific objectives are to investigate the usefulness of k-means clustering as a method of combining variables measured in airborne surveys (uranium, thorium and potassium) and then to correlate these results using GIS techniques in an attempt to identify the main geological units in the two study areas and target areas for further analysis. Particular questions to be answered are: S How well does the clustered data correlate to the mapped geology and is it possible to identify the main lithologies? S Is it possible to identify areas that deviate from the mapped geology, and establish possible causes for this difference? S Can environmental features (cultural noise) be identified from the main data set? The following discussion will demonstrate the advantage GIS has over conventional methods of geological analysis using the production of ternary plots to show the general radiometric pattern in an area. Airborne surveys were developed where the need for extensive geological mapping has meant traditional field surveys were not suitable, due to time and cost. This type of surveying method is now being explored as a means of providing rapid geological and environmental information within the United Kingdom to update existing data sets and highlight areas that require further field investigation. The British Geological Survey (BGS) conducted two airborne geophysical surveys between 1998 and1999 over parts of central England. World Geoscience (UK) limited (now Fugro Airborne Surveys), conducted the first survey, High Resolution airborne Resource and Environmental Survey (Hi-Res-1). The survey area included the Cheshire Basin, Derbyshire Dome and the cities of Wrexham, Stoke on Trent, Nottingham and Lincoln. The second survey, a trial airborne geophysical survey was carried out by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and was concerned with smaller site specific problems, relating to environmental features, concentrating on selected parts of the Trent Valley (gravel pits), Wolvey Villa Farm (landfill sites) and Langar (Kurimo 1999). This paper will investigate the airborne data for two contrasting regions in the main data set, the Derbyshire Dome and Trent Valley. These have been selected to demonstrate the way in which GIS could be used to correlate airborne data with existing geological data sets and help pull out environmental features. The Derbyshire Dome data is used as an example of attempting correlation of airborne data with the mapped geology; the Trent Valley study concentrates on environmental features. The equipment for the radiometry used sodium iodide (NaI) crystals; the electromagnetic survey used a dual frequency electromagnetic system (World Geoscience 1998). 2.0 Airborne geophysical surveys and geological mapping Figure 1: A 'typical' ternary diagram to show the distribution of uranium, Radiometric surveys attempt to establish the nature of the thorium and potassium in selected geology through the detection of naturally occurring rock types (Kearey and Brookes 1991). radioactive emanations called gamma-rays, (High-sense 2000). There are in excess of fifty radioactive isotopes that occur naturally. Only three of these isotopes emit gamma-rays of sufficient intensity to be of use during aerial surveying, potassium (40K), thorium (232Th) and uranium (238U), (Durrance 1987, IAEA 1991, Gupta 1991 and Campbell 1996). The abundance of these gamma-rays will depend on the geology. Limestone units are characterised by high values in uranium (figure 1), whereas shale and grit units are characterised by higher levels of thorium. As these isotopes become unstable, they spontaneously disintegrate to form other elements through their decay series (Durrance 1987). This disintegration is accompanied by the emission of radioactivity. Radiometric surveys record gamma-rays - the purest electromagnetic radiation released from the excited isotope during disintegration. There are several extraneous variables that can affect radiometric surveys, for example the interaction between the emitted isotopes and those produced by other processes, such as cosmic rays and during anthropogenic activity such as caesium (137Cs) release during the Chernobyl accident in 1988. The 137Cs isotopes were used to map the fall out from the Chernobyl accident (Burrough & McDonnell 1998, Sanderson & Ferguson 1997). Another problem is the Figure 2: Airborne surveys measure the relative amounts of uranium, attenuation of the gamma-ray thorium and potassium contained in the ground below. This can provide an signal by water. For this indication to the type of geological and environmental features present. reason surveying must not be carried out when it is extremely wet. Altitude is a more fundamental problem that can effect the outcome of a survey. During a survey, there are restrictions placed on the altitude when flying over urban areas (300 feet) and remote locations (130 feet). If the aircraft changes height suddenly, the radiometric equipment may not be able to recalibrate to the change in altitude, resulting in errors with the data (Kurimo 1999). A schematic of a typical field survey is given in Figure 2. The gamma-rays measured during AGRS surveys are defined by their energies, measured in electron volts (eV). During the acquisition and processing of data, a total count and selected peaks representing the three gamma-rays (Figure 3) are measured in the following energy intensities (Wilford et al., 1997): 40K indicator has an energy of 1.46 MeV, 238U indicator has an energy of 1.76 MeV, 232Th indicator has an energy of 2.62 MeV. By measuring gamma-ray emissions over different regions and comparing them, it should be possible Figure 3: Radiometric surveys produce measurement as a total count and peaks for uranium, thorium and potassium (after to translate changes in the energy Wilford et al., 1997) peaks into corresponding variations of uranium, thorium and potassium. These variations can then be used to establish relative lithologies and environmental features. Airborne electromagnetic surveys The second [Trent Valley] study area used AEM data as well as AGRS data. AEM surveys are widely used during geophysical investigations because of the speed of acquisition and thus cost, particularly in extensive areas (Kearey & Brookes 1991). There are two types of AEM surveys, passive and active. The GTK survey used an active system. The survey works by measuring the response of the ground to the propagation of a primary electromagnetic field produced by the transmitter. The primary field travels via a direct and indirect path to the receiver. Although the indirect field reaches the receiver with slightly reduced amplitude, its characteristics will be the same as the direct field (Reynolds 1997). If the ground is not homogeneous, the magnetic component of the primary field will induce alternating (eddy) currents. These eddies produce a secondary field, which travels to the receiver. The difference in amplitude and phase of the detected signal provides an indication on the geometry, size and electrical property of the conductive body (Milson 1987, Kearey & Brookes 1991 and Reynolds 1997). The frequency of the AEM survey dictates the depth to which the primary field will penetrate. High frequencies are used to investigate shallow geology as these frequencies are attenuated with depth, whereas lower frequencies are able to reach greater depths (Beamish et al., 2000). This study uses low frequency data in the Trent Valley study area in an attempt to penetrate the overlying drift geology. Conventional studies using airborne radiometric geophysical data The most common application of radiometric surveys has been in the exploration of economic ore bodies, particularly uranium, (Cook et al., 1996). For example in China, AGRS surveys account for a third of all uranium bodies located. The main task of these surveys has been to delimit potential areas of buried uranium, (Zhang et al., 1998). In the past, AGRS studies were considered 'specialised' and not directly applicable to geological mapping (Nrcan 2000b). However, since initial discussions on the application of AGRS surveys there has been extensive research on all continents except Antarctica demonstrating the adaptation